New Orleans to Host U.S. Travel's IPW 2016

The U.S. Travel Association announced on Wednesday that New Orleans would be the host city for IPW 2016—the first time the annual travel industry event has been held in the Crescent City since 2002. New Orleans previously hosted the annual five-day event, formerly known as International Pow Wow, in 1993 and 1979.

IPW is the largest travel trade show in North America, and brings U.S. destinations, attractions and businesses together to connect with thousands of travel professionals from international markets. Good to know: The business transacted at IPW has been calculated by the independent firm Rockport Analytics to bring nearly one million extra international visitors and $1.7 billion in international tourism spending to recent host cities, and 8.8 million additional international visitors and $28 billion in international tourism spending to the U.S. economy overall.
"One of the major objectives of IPW is to spotlight the economic benefits of travel and tourism, and few cities anywhere in the world understand that equation as well as New Orleans," U.S. Travel Association President and CEO Roger Dow said of the show.

Changing Venues

New Orleans, however, was not originally slated to host IPW 2016: Greater Miami and The Beaches had been previously announced as the host city , but arrangements for the event were postponed when the City of Miami Beach Commission voted through a $500 million renovation and expansion of the city's convention center, set to begin in 2015 and last an estimated three years. Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau President and CEO William D. Talbert, III, said in a statement that the city would aim to host IPW at a future date once the new convention center was completed.

Dow praised the handling of the transition by both Miami and New Orleans, and called it a virtual certainty that IPW will return to Greater Miami and The Beaches once upgrades to its convention facilities are complete. "We have to change venues for IPW 2016 for the best, most welcome reason we can possibly think of: Miami has wisely decided to make a huge investment in its convention space," Dow said. "The fiscal benefits of that decision will return to the city many times over, and in the meantime, we will have another top-shelf new facility to consider for a future IPW."

"The timing could not be better. Hosting this critical international selling and marketing show is a perfect fit with our plans for the world promotion of New Orleans' 300th Tricentennial birthday in 2018. This will result in hundreds of millions of new dollars of international capital flowing into New Orleans and Louisiana," Stephen Perry, president and CEO of the New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau, said in a statement.